


And so Tunnel Rat complains

by sakurachan811



Series: The Renegade Files [6]
Category: G.I. Joe: Renegades
Genre: Food Issues, Heavy Angst, Implied Relationships, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Male Character of Color, Past Rape/Non-con, Sick Character, Unhealthy Coping Mechanisms, Vomiting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-04
Updated: 2020-07-04
Packaged: 2021-03-05 06:15:49
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con, Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,007
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25059850
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sakurachan811/pseuds/sakurachan811
Summary: Tunnel Rat notices things he wish he didn't.
Series: The Renegade Files [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1815079
Kudos: 4





	And so Tunnel Rat complains

**Author's Note:**

> You'd think Tunnel Rat, the most observant one, would comment on the whole Duke being awake when everyone is asleep Also are you trying to get killed?
> 
> Also pretty sure Duke canonically has PTSD  
> This is set during Tradition.

'Nicky' Lee, otherwise known as Tunnel Rat was no stranger to made feel different from others and singled out by people bigger than he was. Growing up in Brooklyn with his older brothers, coming from a family of immigrants, he was taught family looked out for their own, mostly because nobody else would. He still doesn't fully understand how Duke just explains away his brothers choice to trade them in to Flint like that.

It was way easier to bitch about Cobra, the weather, the food, the lack of food, the music on the radio, best of all Roadblock's choice of music and the skill of whichever poor soul driving at the time. Than it was to talk about the fact that they were on the run. They all had their own ways of coping that they all pretended weren't exaclly that. He complained, Roadblock had his music, Scarlett obsessed about Cobra, and Snake Eyes meditated or did whatever it was he did when he'd slink off. Duke flung himself at death in the form of Cobra goons like he hungry for it, like he's desperate for it, like he needs it, more than anything in the world.

He doesn't know what Scarlett finally said to him to get him to stop flinging himself headlong into a spray of plasma fire when they stormed that castle. It's just such a relief that that there's one less thing he has to worry about, so he doesn't want to press it. But then Duke stops eating, they may call him paranoid, but he sees the nights when Duke stays up, his posture rigid and gaze empty, bags begin to form under his eyes. Then they start turning a deep purple color that, white guy or not that can't be good. He's their medic he's supposed to notice these things. He still says nothing, he can get behind Duke not wanting to make waves.

Almost.

He can still see the intense burning blue fire of his eyes, ready for a fight when he snapped at them with his teeth like a hunted animal. Sweaty, and bonewhite with fear. It was fortunate that it was Roadblock's turn to get him to eat this time. With only the kind of desprate strength that fear gives. For reasons he chooses not to analyze too deeply Duke never fights when it's Scarlett dosing his medicine or giving him food or in his case juice or mystery mush, when she'd tried to feed him granola and he doesn't fight they almost consider it a success until he vomits down his front. He doesn't do anything else, just lays back staying silent and still and breathing much too shallowly.

when they turn to ask Scarlett to leave so they could get him out of his ruined gear she doesn't protest at all, looking disturbed.They remove his vest, then his short-sleeved shirt, revealing his tan skin, a forest of blonde hair on a too thin chest and a large painful looking back scar. He starts to shiver again, so they cover him back up with what few blankets they have. Scarlett comes back in when he's decent with more water for Duke. 

They had dosed him as often as they dared but he was using up their medicine at an alarming rate. 

He's used it all: Asprin, blacksamson echinacea, medowsweet, feverfew, yarrow, elderberry, peppermint, lemon balm, wood avens, ginger and catnip. All of it, everything they had. 

So now their out of medicine to lower his fever, and he's seems to be worse than when they started. His fever having spiked to dagerous levels. Quickly running out of games and safe stories to keep Duke awake until Snake Eyes gets back. So, out of options, he says "Tell us about yourself, Duke" With a bitter twist to his mouth Duke says "Not much to tell." Wow he's so going to unpack that comment later. "Tell us everything." he says.  
So Duke-Conrad his name is Conrad, does.

He should know better than to assume things based on whats only on paper, I mean just look at Cobra. But he's still surprised when he hears Duke haltingly tell them about his childhood in St Louis. He tells them about the day his father died, when his mother remarried, when his baby brother Vincent was born. But he goes cold hearing that he dealt with, Duke carefully calls it bullying, what he went through sounds like the worst kind of small town cruelty. They'd steal his jackets, destroy his school stuff, take his money, jump him on the way home. He joined the football team hoping to put an end to it. 

Oh god, oh god he hopes Duke never rembers this because If Duke asks him later he would have say that he needs some serious therapy for compartmentlizing his issues for all those years when this is all over. Because the things he said, fever non-whitstanding, no matter how he phrased it. Was absolutely horrifying, what they did to him wasn't just hazing, it wasn't bullying, it was rape.

So when Duke drifts back off into a fitful sleep he has to know, he has to. He asks Scarlett if she knew, if she had any idea, she read his file. Her was a voice low horrified whisper and cracks on every word when she says 'No, no.' he relizes then that she's started to cry, weeping openly. 

He turns away from her, from this, looking for something, anything.

When Duke wakes up the next day, his eyes are fever bright but clear, his face sallow and pale. He accepts a small bowl of unidentifiable mush from from Roadblock, who has his earbuds shoved deep in his ears. Scarlett's already planning something and he knows from the red rims of her eyes that she hasn't slept at all, none of them have, not after that. He’s definitely going to have trouble sleeping for a long time after this. He doesn't complain, he doesn't say anything at all.

**Author's Note:**

> you'd think landing in an old well filled with shitty water would have more consequences


End file.
